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Old 12-27-2015, 04:03 PM
SteveMitchell SteveMitchell is offline
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Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 277
Default Johnson, then Alexander

Because of his supporting cast (rather lack thereof) I would rate Walter Johnson as the greatest of all-time with Grover Cleveland Alexander second. Again, supporting cast would easily give Ol' Pete the edge over Mathewson, in my book. Cy Young would certainly be among the top five but the quality of baseball in Young's early years was not on par with later decades. Lefty Grove would also rank among my top five although Grove brings me to one of my favorite pitchers not in the Hall of Fame: Wes Ferrell.

After Grove's glory days, though still possessing plenty of life in his left arm, he teamed with Ferrell for three full seasons and part of another - Wes being traded to Washington (a club inferior to Boston) part way through 1937. In those four seasons, Ferrell's won-lost log was 73-53 while Grove's stood at 62-41 for a ballclub that was basically .500 (or a bit below for Ferrell when counting his '37 season with the Senators). Not only did Ferrell best Grove in wins those four seasons but his bat usually outpaced his Hall of Fame teammate by more than 100 points (usually doubling Grove's numbers) and probably accounting for much of the difference in their records.
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